A promise to protect
by chloemcg
Summary: (One-shot) One day in the mystery room, Lucy and Alfendi sees that Katrielle in danger and Al runs out to rescue her, his brotherly instincts overriding anything else. But will he be able to get there in time or will he lose her just like they lost their father?


**Disclaimer: I don't own either Layton's Mystery journey nor Layton brothers mystery room, the right side belong to level 5 and their proper owners...and NOT ME!**

 **A promise to protect.**

* * *

Things happen.

Sometimes things happen when you don't expect them to, and there's nothing you can do to change it no matter how hard you try, and sometimes things can happen that can take away those you love.

This can create a fear that you cannot shake no matter how hard you try.

It was just another day in the famous Scotland Yard department and the building was abustle with law enforcers —police, detectives, forensic scientists, ect— and all was lively but subdued at the same time as the police force would just mostly saunter along and go about their individual breaks or duties and such. They didn't even seem to notice the room they were walking by which was the sadly-underestimated-Mystery room.

Alfendi Layton, son of the famous Professor Hershel Layton, worked in the office in the very back of the yard, in a certain room all by its lonesome self that was affectionately named the Mystery room by himself and the title just stuck. The 29-year-old had a sunken posture and his shoulders were lowered as he sat at his desk and was sifting through several case files to see exactly what cases he had been given to do.

It was a sort of sleepy yet lazy day.

Alfendi was reading through a file that was given to him by Barton, yellow eyes lidded from a mix of mild exhaustion and laziness.

He had been working so much lately and while he wasn't stressed, he longed for something to come in and interrupt this boring day. Paperwork had never been his favourite thing to do yet he knew that it was just a necessity for him to do his job in the most proper fashion possible and he loved his job very much, even if there were things in life he loved more...he wished that something exciting would come to the Mystery room so he could at least have that buzz that he always craved when an intriguing case comes to both him and Lucy in their beloved Mystery room.

Little was he aware that his wish was about to come true...

He was just writing with his hand hovering limply over the paper with an feather pen in hand when, all of a sudden, Detective Lucy Baker burst through the door. Her arrival was so abrupt that it caused the whole room to rumble and all the papers to go flying from their neat stacks atop the desk counter and just falling to the floor in an untidy heap. Within instants, Alfendi tore his eyes off of his paperwork and his purple mop of hair instantly turned into a dark Crimson and bristled up with malicious intent His yellow eyes widened in surprise of seeing his assistant running inside the room, and then narrowed in a mix of annoyance and frustration of all of his hard work going to pot.

He would've sighed and then snapped if it weren't for him noticing the look of alarm on the young woman's lovely round face.

"Prof! Prof! Prof, you have ta see this!" Lucy cried, crimson pools wide and mouth agape.

"Lucy? What's wrong?" He asked, worry seeping into his voice.

Lucy's arms started flapping around exasperatedly and wildly as she explained whatever was wrong so quickly that the next series words that rolled off her Yorkshire-accented tongue sounded like some sort of gibberish foreign language to Al's ears. Her words were fast and her vocal range was raising an octave every second that slipped by, so by the time she finished her frantic yet long-winded explanation she was basically screaming at him.

All it took to silence her irrationally fast and panicked rant was Al to swiftly raise his hand up with a mildly irritated twitch in his brow. He spoke slowly and had a low tone of cool exasperation anchoring his voice, surprisingly his hair turned purple so his Placid persona was in control even though this form was hardly ever miffed or anything like that.

"Lucy. I cannot understand you so pace yourself and calm down. Just take deep breaths and _slowly_ tell me what's the matter. Alright?"

Lucy, now much calmer, didn't say anything as she nodded at him.

Then she calmly but hastily sped-walked over towards the other side of the room where the older styled television was tucked away, hidden amongst stray official report papers and files, then she leaned down and turned the little knob on the device and switched it on and it was after that she turned back towards her partner, face still full of fright, and pointed right at the telly. Alfendi, both curious and still annoyed by the situation, simply got up from his seat and followed his plucky assistant's finger and glanced at the television screen.

But what he saw made his heart stop dead in his chest as his eyes widened and his breathing halted.

He saw his one and only little sister hanging over the edge of a rooftop as she desperately tried to find something to hold on to, a hound dog and a young man that dressed like a butler of some sorts were trying to pull her up.

"K-Katrielle!?"

Lucy only exclaimed to him, "Aye! W-We've got to go save 'er, Prof!"

Then she bolted straight out of the office without saying another word.

Meanwhile, Alfendi's just stood as his usually calm and collected mind was a mess of fragmented thoughts. How could Katrielle have gotten herself into such a situation!?

Then again, he supposed that his dear little sister did seem to be a magnet for trouble just like their father was. But still she had a clever mind...even if her way of thinking was a bit on the unique side, yet there was still the pressing issue at hand! She was in danger right now and she could get seriously injured by whatever mess she'd gotten herself into. As her big brother, he'd vowed to protect her; actually he was the one who stepped up at the age of 12 and he practically raised her since she was five so he knew her better than anyone.

He ran a hand through his messy purple hair, squeezed his eyes closed and heaved a deep-throated sigh as he pinched the bridge of his long nose to suppress an oncoming headache. He could hear an internal debate in his head as both sides of himself fought.

 _"We've got to do something!"_

 _"But how? We might not make it in time!"_

 _"Katrielle needs us, Placid, we cannot let her die even if she has really made a stupid mistake this time!"_

 _"You're right, Potty, we have to try...!"_

 _"But I have to ask how can we find her?"_

 _"Over-protective-big-brother-senses never lie, Placid."_

Then he took off towards the open door of the Mystery room but he quickly stopped himself at the doorframe and hesitated on leaving.

He never liked leaving his office -ever since that incident in Forbodium castle, he had felt so alienated whenever he set foot outside...especially with both his "Placid" and "Potty" personalities always fighting inside of his mind. It was just so hard to deal with but he always felt in control and both split personalities seemed to somewhat harmonise whenever Lucy was with him. It was still hard to leave his office at times, though.

But he couldn't leave his sister to dangle off of a high ledge where she could get hurt...or worse.

Sighing once again in both frustration and defeat, Alfendi shot back into the room quickly and grabbed his white lab coat that hung from the coat hanger, he proceeded to quickly slip the sleeves over his arms and put it on and it was once he finished that he started to make a dash for the door and chase after Lucy. His feet slammed against the floor whilst he ran straight for the entrance of Scotland yard and he didn't care who got pushed over as he ran as fast as he could.

He had to get there fast if he wanted to save his sister.

He could feel his head burn as "Potty Prof" took over and he grumbled beneath his breath and narrowed his eyes in a dark glare.

"You had better appreciate this, Kat...!"

* * *

Kat had no clue as to how she ended up in such a dire situation.

It had started off with a nice stroll with Ernest Greeves (also known as Miles Richmond) and the amnesiac talking dog, Sherl OC Holmes.

Then this rude individual had shoved passed, grabbing something she'd only bought later that day out of her pocket as he did so, and took off running. Katrielle had become absolutely enraged about this and didn't waste any time in taking off and chasing after the man whom robbed her, her heart was pumping as she ran in hot pursuit of the criminal and even though she knew that this wasn't her job as a detective, but she was so cross that she wasn't even thinking about that.

Kat didn't even hear Ernest and Sherl calling out for her to stop as she ran.

She couldn't let him get away with stealing off of a gentle woman of mystery such as herself!

Minutes flew by and Katrielle couldn't recall much of the chase but at some point it clearly ended up with her climbing up the rooftop of a building, how she hadn't even noticed she didn't know, and she must have been going through such a rush of adrenaline to even manage to do it at all. Anyway, eventually she cornered the literal pocket-thief and the two had found themselves at the top of a tall building and then thief, in some desperate act out of not wanting to be caught, jumped over the edge of the roof and ended up landing on the building across...miraculously without injury. Kat (again) wasn't even thinking as she jumped too but, unlike the thief, didn't end up making it quite far enough and grabbed hold of the edge of the roof and here she was now...dangling for her life.

Kat was remarkably calm and collected at first as she hung off the edge of the roof but as her blood-wrath-fuelled adrenaline rush wore off, the situation started to hit her like a ton of bricks and she started to become a bundle of nerves. Her arms started to turn into jelly, her eyes started to burn, tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, her heart couldn't stop pounding in her chest...

Now she was absolutely terrified.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long before her friends tracked her down and immediately tried coming to her aid.

"H-Hold on, Miss Layton!" Ernest cried as he reached down and tried to grab a hold of Kat's wrist, the upper half of his body was hanging off the edge (although it wasn't so far as he did his best not to fall off and end up like the young woman hanging below him) and he had his face squeezed with effort whilst he stretched his arm down to try and grab her.

Katrielle felt mortified as she swung in midair, her arm felt strained and spikes of pain trickled through the nerves. She cringed as the pain made her grip weaken and she couldn't help but cry out whilst looking up at her two friends, blue eyes pleading for help as she dangled helplessly in midair and she could feel her long ginger curls blow in the wind. Her face tightened and she couldn't make her voice work, unusually as she loved to talk, even though she tried her hardest.

Sherl leaned down, snuffling his little black nose, and tried to reach her. He only just managed to bite on to the sleeve of her coat and it was while he reared back in an attempt to pry the young woman up, that he moaned painfully. He groaned through clenched sharp canine teeth, speaking as he tried his best not to drop the young woman, trying not to let his long droopy ears get in the way as he dug his paws into the flat roof tiles.

"Uuugnh...for th' luff oof dug, culdju lend a paw an' loose a feeuw pounds...?"

Kat couldn't resist a mock scowl at Sherl's sarcastic remark. She couldn't help that she loved to eat! She could understand the dogs words really well even though he had a mouth full of her coat sleeve but she was too frightened of her current predicament to object to his garbled speech.

Ernest and Sherl each tried their best to grab hold of her sleeve as she started to slip.

Kat's eyes flooded with tears and her lower lip quivered. She whimpered as she tried to keep grabbing hold of the ledge that she was dangling from, she felt her arm strain from having to hold her own weight. Her legs swayed in the air and she panicked as her grasp loosened from the edge.

"Hold on...!" Sherl growled through gritted canine teeth, pulling back as hard as he possibly could whilst he gnashed his fangs to keep hold of the young woman's sleeve...which was starting to rip!

In a split second, Kat's hand slipped and she plummeted down towards the ground.

She couldn't help a shrill scream from bursting out of her throat as she fell in what felt like slow motion, and she quickly scrambled as she somehow gripped on to the ledge of a window sill at just the right time. She could feel her whole being melt into a puddle as relief washed over her. She scrambled to get a more secure hold on the ledge, clambering as she grabbed on to the window sill fast and tight with both of her arms. She just blew out a sigh of relief as she relaxed and eased her muscles, and she noticed Ernest and Sherl do the same thing.

"Phew..."

Kat's head perked up, though, when she heard someone from far down below call out her name and she couldn't resist the urge to glance downward. Eyes widening slightly, the gentlewomen of Mystery looked down at the huge crowd that had gathered around the building underneath her and noticed that a few familiar faces were also gathered as they stood down below; there were citizens from Chancer lane such as the Lipski brothers, Granny Riddleton, old Mr. Stachenscarfen, some members of the Seven Dragons and even a few people from Scotland Yard such as Inspector Hastings, Emiliana Perfetti, PC Beate and even Lucy Baker...wait what?

"Wait, L-Lucy...! What are you-"

Lucy, managing to hear the lady detective, looked up at her worriedly as she pushed and shoved her way towards the front of the crowd. She was determined to muscle her way through and nobody was going to stop her from trying to help her friend and her partner's beloved little sister...! She furrowed her brows and knitted them together to paint a face full of worry on her face and she exclaimed up to Kat in order to try reassuring her, "Hang on, we all came t' help! Don't let nip on, Kat!"

"Huh?"

"It means just hold on for dear life!"

As Katrielle looked down, she noticed her eyes starting to spin and her eyesight vision to split in two as she suffered from an intense rush of vertigo. She was sweating chilled bullets as she fought to keep a tight grab on to the window sill yet she couldn't help but wonder where her big brother was. Did Alfendi feel too daunted to leave his office? Well considering the fact that he was quite introverted and hated crowds as well as his problems with SPD, she didn't find it all that surprising that he wouldn't come...even if she did hope that he'd (or anyone would) come to save her like he'd always done for her. She could feel her consciousness slipping and she watched in terror as she peered up and realised that both Ernest and Sherl were noticing that she was looking very faint and Ernest had started to call out to her.

Within a few more seconds, she passed out.

Ernest shouted down to Kat as he watched her pass out, his face full of panic as his complexion drained of all of its colour. His dark coffee brown eyes were glistening with the purest form of fright imaginable as he stared down at the fainted young woman. His voice was cracking and his resolve was crumbling into dust. What could he do?

"Miss Layton! Wake up! Please, please, please! You have to wake up!"

Kat didn't respond, she just hung from the window sill with her hands quickly loosening their grip as her fingertips started to weaken drastically.

Ernest started to grow panicky as he raised his voice at her, doing something he'd never done before in his life. He couldn't lose her because he didn't know who he'd be without her there and he wouldn't feel whole without her being in his presence. "KATRIELLE, PLEASE WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES!"

Still no response.

This was when the 19-year-old young man started to yell down to her and make a confession that he normally wouldn't dare attempt to make. With tears pooling in his eyes, he closed them.

"MISS LAYTON, I LOVE-!"

But he never got to finish his sentence as a sudden blur whooshed passed them and they noticed an odd man skidding to a halt beside them and he knelt down on the roof and peered over the edge to look at Kat whom was nanoseconds away from fully releasing that window sill and then plummeting all the way down to her death.

Alfendi hardly wasted a second as he then proceeded to look at Ernest with a dark stare before he swiftly instructed him to grab hold of one of his crisp white lab coats collars so he could lean down and try and reach for the young woman, and it seemed that he managed to reach his sister just in time. As he managed to spread his arms out, Al managed to clasped one of her hands tightly.

Everyone who had been watching from below burst out cheering, happy that someone had managed to rescue the dangling Katrielle from a horrible death.

Alfendi ignored them, though, as he just gently readjusted Kat so she could be cradled in his arms more securely. Then he glanced over his shoulder and nodded up at Ernest in a silent request to help him back up so he could properly get the unconscious young lady to safety. Ernest was silent but he obliged with the long-nosed, hair-colour-changing inspector's nonverbal request; Ernest shuffled backwards to try and heave both Layton siblings back up.

It was very successful.

Alfendi lay Kat down on the roof tiles, being very careful with her since she was still very much unconscious.

The dog and two men watched for a full minute until Kat finally opened her eyes and sat up whilst rubbing her head groggily and she looked around with a disoriented, confused look on her face. She couldn't remember much of what happened but she could remember that guy, and then she was holding on to Ernest's hand for dear life...the rest of it was all fuzzy. When she surveyed her surroundings, Kat noticed Ernest and Sherl as well as Lucy (she got to the top of the roof just moments earlier to join in the rescue efforts) and they all looked extremely relieved that she was safe and sound and then Kat saw that her big brother was there too.

But a painful exchange of silence was formed between the Layton siblings.

The silence was unbearable, and Kat could only glance downwards in shame.

Al's expression grew dark and his hair started bristling as he gnashed his teeth and muttered something inaudible under his breath. He wasn't going to let anybody harm a hair on his baby sister and if someone dared made an attempt then he would fight until he could not fight anymore but the gentlewoman clinging tightly to him had huge tears welling up inside her eyes as she snuffled and sobbed with her face twisting.

She started to show signs that she was going to burst into tears any second.

Al couldn't let that happen because he was the big brother so it was his responsibility to protect Katrielle. So he wrapped his skinny arms around the young woman, enveloping her in a tight embrace, and ran his hand up and down her back soothingly to try and make her feel better about her traumatic experience.

But at the same time he couldn't help but be a bit mad with Kat's recklessness.

"Katrielle Layton..." Alfendi hissed crossly, "What on earth were you playing at?"

Kat hesitated on answering that question. She could see that her big brother -whom had slipped into his "Potty prof" persona- was very angry at her and she was afraid of making him even more so, but she had to stand up for herself. She narrowed her bright blue eyes and forced her frown downwards so much that it made her facial muscles ache in protest.

"That thief s-stole from me and he was getting away, Alfendi! I c-couldn't sit still and do nothing!"

"You could have been killed! Besides it's the job of the police to catch murder suspects, not yours!"

Katrielle scowled darkly at her older brother, pushing out of the embrace he'd enveloped her in. She appreciated the fact that he was only just trying to look out for her but it was at times like this that she hated it, she was a grown woman she didn't need so much limitations on her life. She only wanted to help and catch a man fleeing a scene but she never expected it to end up with her almost dying. Ever since she was little she had been one to never keep still and she wished that Alfendi could respect that fact...though she hated that there was truth to his words.

Perhaps she should have left it to the police, yet still...

"I know that! I'm not stupid!"

The unkempt inspector of Scotland Yard barked as his body practically started trembling with rage.

"Yet you did a stupid thing today that could have gotten you killed!"

The Layton siblings were mostly unaware of Lucy, Sherl and Ernest all looking rather uncomfortable as they had to watch this rather discomforting argument unfold before them.

Tears rolled down Katrielle's face, her heart was breaking into pieces and she had to bite down on her bottom lip to prevent anymore tears from flowing. She raised a sleeve and quickly wiped away the tears that cascaded down her cheeks in little rivulets akin to that of little streams, she refused to make a scene in public since that was what a gentleman (and woman) would never do. She found herself unable to argue anymore, she knew deep down that Alfendi was right...but it hurt to admit it to herself as the anger on her face melted away instantly and she glanced down at the ground, ashamed.

The anger on Alfendi's face also dissipated a bit (but not entirely) and he gently gripped his sister's shoulders and stared her straight in the eye. He couldn't wait to deal with the crook who dared almost kill his sister, and he couldn't wait to give him a severe tongue lashing. Yet he felt totally hollowed inside with sadness as he exclaimed eleven words that made her heart sink.

"Kat...we've lost our father, I refuse to lose you too!"

Kat froze and her eyes widened. She could feel the breath become knocked from her lungs and a billion thoughts race through her mind. Did Alfendi always have such fears? How long had he been living with those worries...? She couldn't believe that he was frightened of her disappearing just like their father, yet she had to admit that those fears were justifiable...especially as they were both young when he'd left them.

She stared at her big brother with a mix of shock and consternation. How could she have been so thoughtless?

Her eyes welled up with tears and her lower lip quivered.

"A-A-Alfendi...! I'm s-s-so, so sorry!" She cried, throwing herself into Alfendi's thin chest once again. She clung tightly on to the fabric of his white coat, so much so that it caused the several newspapers piled into the pockets to come tumbling out and Alfendi hardly hesitated before he rested a hand on his baby sister's back, crooning hushedly to comfort her.

"Shhh...it's all going to be alright, Kat, I'm here. I am right here..."

Al heaved a heavy sigh as he hugged his baby sister close to him and shut his eyes, resting his chin atop her head as he let her cry. Later on, he'd deal with the thief personally...he'd pay for dare trying to hurt his sister...but right now he was just relieved that his sister was alright and he just absorbed himself into him trying to comfort her. The uproar of the crowd gathered around the building down below was no longer visible to the two siblings and Lucy, Ernest and Sherl all watched with adoring faces for witnessing this sweet moment.

So sweet, it was, that they were sure the scene was giving them teeth rot.

"Well, alls well that ends well!" Sherl chirped happily, breaking the silence.

Everyone was silent for a few moments until Alfendi spoke up, a bewildered expression on his face.

"Did...Did that mutt just speak?"

Katrielle couldn't help but giggle lightly at the question and hugged Al tighter.

"You'll get used to it."

* * *

 **A/N: Heres a Professor Layton fanfic, a mix between Layton brothers and Mystery journey, with some sibling love thrown in there. This took me days to write and I am proud with how it came out so I hope you guys like reading it just as much as I enjoyed writing it, even though part of it was written in Hospital waiting room due to some health stuff.**

 **I hope you like it, guys. Please fave.**

 **-Chloemcg**


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